Air Force assistant coach Joe Doyle received a call-up to the National Hockey League this fall.
The veteran coach got the invitation from his longtime friend – and former high school teammate – Mike Sullivan, who has coached the Pittsburgh Penguins to two of the past three Stanley Cup championships.
“I don’t know if I actually helped them out or they helped me out being there,” Doyle deadpanned.
He and Sullivan grew up outside of Boston and knew each other from their youth hockey days. They played together for two seasons at Boston College High School. “(It was) probably a better deal for me than it was for Sully,” Doyle said.
After the duo went their separate ways to college and started their careers – Sullivan’s in the NHL and Doyle’s in active duty for the Air Force, they reconnected in the coaching world.
“He’s just been unbelievable, willing to share team coaching concepts or video edits from their NHL packages with our staff over time,” Doyle said. “So we’ve developed a relationship as coaches where he’s afforded me a ton of time that he didn’t have to if he didn’t want to, but that’s the type of guy he is.”
Was Doyle fazed by his time with some of the world’s best players? Not really, and here is why: “It’s funny. Frank (Serratore) told me this before I went out there, “Joe, you’re probably going to learn a concept or three that we maybe want to use with our guys, but you’re probably going to realize we’re doing a lot of things well,” Doyle recalled. “Their days, and the way he structures his staff … if the first ice time was 9 o’clock, we were there at 7:30 or 8 o’clock in Sully’s office going over the practice plans for the day. That’s what we do here.
“It’s like a dry run, and we do the exact same thing there.”
Is coaching some those players any different than coaching college players? Doyle spoke extensively about the experience in our latest Falcon Hockey Podcast, which you can download or listen to here.
©First Line Editorial 2017-18
